Samantha Ruth Prabhu on Citadel Honey Bunny and defeating the demons in her head

These are powerful parts for Samantha, whose Telugu and Tamil works rarely gave her such heavy lifting to do. “I didn’t even know I wanted to be an actor, I always wanted to study. So, to just find my space in this big world, it took me quite a few years to work through all the insecurities and questions, ‘Am I good enough?’” she said.

The question of taking on a more author-backed role didn’t occur to her till a few years ago because until then, she was just trying to cement her position.

In the last few years, Samantha’s rise has been meteoric. Before the acclaim of The Family Man season two, there was the chartbuster Oo Antava track from Allu Arjun’s Telugu blockbuster Pushpa, with which she danced through all language barriers and became an overnight sensation. Hindi projects naturally followed, including an appearance on Karan Johar’s chat show Koffee With Karan. In between, the actor kept her cool amid intense scrutiny following her divorce from actor Naga Chaitanya and then being diagnosed with myositis, an autoimmune medical condition. Such a steady focus on her career, she said, is a recent gift.

“It takes you a while. The last couple of years of my career have been the calmest. I am jealous of actors who are way more rooted and know themselves really well early on in their careers and what they want,” she said.

With an action-packed role such as the one in Citadel, Samantha said it is “empowering” to be a part of a powerful show that places women at the centre of storytelling and not reduce them to damsels in distress, with men doing all the heavy lifting. “I feel more responsible now at this stage of my career for the roles I am picking. I want them to represent women in society. Often the characters are a misrepresentation of women. The women of today have changed preconceived notions and somehow, we are still in the past. Only lately has there been a shift in representation and the fact that the Citadel universe has strong female characters is a welcome change.”

Her co-star on the show, Dhawan, has fought his own battles to bag Citadel. Before the pandemic, the actor had a string of box office flops which had dented his position. He needed an action project, but as close friend and producer Aditya Chopra gently put it, it was a risk investing huge amounts of money to mount an action film headlined by Varun Dhawan. But Citadel came knocking. “When this came, I asked Raj and DK, as well as Amazon, what’s the budget? Because my knowledge came from Aditya Chopra about how much one needs to make something look good in action. I’m grateful to them for giving us this platform because that’s needed to make action look big and the actors larger than life,” said Dhawan.

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Filmmakers Raj and DK direct the Indian leg of the globetrotting espionage series, the American version of which was headlined by actor Priyanka Chopra, playing the spy Nadia. The director duo said a lot of action that they mounted was because they knew all of it was in safe hands because of Varun and Samantha.

“We could have given this show a contemporary setting, but we thought, what if we get away with technology? A lot of films use high-tech stuff, so we thought let’s not have any holograms, gadgets or crazy communication devices that connect you with anyone across the world. We took out all of that and thought let them use their guns, fists and a pager. So, we kept it raw, real and got actors who are very good with action,” said Raj.

The first season of Citadel starred Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden. In Citadel: Honey Bunny, the series follows Dhawan and Prabhu, who play Chopra’s parents. Citadel: Honey Bunny will premiere on November 7.